Spotlight on London’s outstanding GP practices: Cuckoo Lane Surgery

The care provided to patients by the staff at the Cuckoo Lane Surgery in Hanwell was rated as ‘outstanding’ in an inspection report published by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) in June 2015.

It is one of 14 practices to be rated as outstanding in London to date.

Cuckoo Lane Surgery is a nurse-led practice. It is run by two directors who are both nurses. The practice is very proud of its personal, patient-centred culture, with the practice team staff all wearing name badges at all times so patients always know who they are speaking with.

What makes the care at Cuckoo Lane outstanding?

The quality of services at this practice was judged across five different areas: whether it is safe, effective, caring, responsive to people’s needs, and well-led. Services were found to be either good or outstanding in each of these areas by CQC’s team of trained inspectors.

Along with providing high quality care as standard to its patients, the practice was found to go above and beyond expectations — taking care to an outstanding level:

• Helping patients with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) with self-managing their condition has improved to better symptom control and fewer hospital admissions for 25% of patients in this group in one year. Linked to this, a nurse practitioner at the practice carried out spirometry tests, to help diagnose and monitor certain lung conditions, and also provided a weekly clinic for patients registered at other local practices.
• The practice took part in the ‘shifting settings of care’ program, which supported patients with mental illness to access better care outside of hospital and transfer the care of some people, where appropriate, from mental health care services into primary care — closer to home. The result was that 19 patients who would have previously received care in a hospital setting in the past were now receiving their support and treatment from their GP surgery.
• The practice arranged for an Age UK support worker to attend the practice three days a week to support older patients who live on their own. The practice also provided transport to improve access for those patients who are house bound or find it difficult to get to the surgery. Along with helping patients to feel less isolated, it also had the positive impact of reducing the amount of home visits by 20 during its first month.
• Cuckoo Lane was instrumental in establishing a pilot project to improve diabetes care across Ealing. This led to more diabetic nurse specialists being appointed including a diabetic nurse consultant for the borough and weekly satellite clinics.

Julie Belton, Operational and Strategic Director at Cuckoo Lane Surgery, said:

“We were absolutely thrilled that our hard work and commitment using a nurse lead model was recognised and acknowledged by the CQC. Our motto is continual improvement which we as a team will maintain in order to provide the highest standards of clinical care for our population.”

You can find out more about how Cuckoo Lane Surgery delivers its outstanding care here.